USA > Idaho > An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day > Part 124
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Lyttleton Price was educated in the public schools near his boyhood home and at Ypsilanti Seminary. While still quite young he went to San Francisco, California, this being in the year 1869. He entered upon the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1872. He practiced in California four years, with growing success, and then went to Arizona, where he was United
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States attorney under General John C. Fremont, who was governor of that territory, 1880-83. When he gave up that responsible office, which had been by no means insignificant in its de- mands upon his resources, and the duties and re- quirements of which he had met with the great- est satisfaction to the judiciary of the territory, he came to Hailey, where he has since practiced his profession and given attention to his mining in- terests. As a lawyer he has taken high rank in Idaho and has built up a practice which extends into nearby states.
He is influential in the councils of the Repub- lican party and for the past three years has been one of the most prominent silver Republicans in Idaho. He was a delegate to the St. Louis con- vention of 1896 and was one of the delegates who walked out because of the attitude assumed by the controllers of the convention toward the sil- ver question. Since then he has never retreated from the stand then taken, and he has frequently been chosen chairman of the state conventions of politicians of his way of thinking.
Mr. Price was first married in 1875. By that marriage he has a son, Lyttleton Price, Jr., twenty-one years of age, and now attending the Golden School of Mines in Colorado. In 1891 he married Miss Florence Hunt, a lady of refine- ment, culture and religious conviction, who is an active and influential member of the Methodist Episcopal church. They have an interesting lit- tle daughter named Catharine. Mr. and Mrs. Price have a beautiful home in Hailey, which is in every respect all that the term can imply under the most favorable circumstances. They have a wide and constantly enlarging circle of acquaint- ance and are universally admired for their many good qualities of mind and heart. They are in- fluential members of the community and their influence is a good and helpful one.
R. F. BULLER.
In modern ages, and to a large extent in the past, banks have constituted a vital part of or- ganized society, and governments, both mon- archical and popular, have depended upon theni for material aid in times of depression and trouble. Their influence has extended over the entire world and their prosperity has been the barometer which has unfalteringly indicated the
financial status of all nations. Of this important branch of business R. F. Buller is a worthy rep- resentative. In April, 1892, he came to Hailey, and is now president of the First National Bank, which has become one of the leading and reliable financial concerns in southern Idaho.
Mr. Buller is a native of Coburg, Canada, his birth having there occurred March 10, 1840. He is of English descent, and his father, Charles G. Buller, a native of England, emigrated to Can- ada in 1830. He was married in Coburg to Miss Frances Boucher. He had been educated, in Oxford College, for the Episcopal ministry; but preferred agricultural pursuits to the calling for which his parents intended him, and throughout his business career carried on farming. His was an honorable and successful life, and his death occurred in 1897, when he had attained the ripe old age of ninety-six years. His wife passed away in 1898, at the age of eighty-six years. They had nine children, five of whom are living.
R. F. Buller, the eldest son, having acquired a good preliminary education, pursued a commer- cial course in Oberlin, Ohio, where he was gradu- ated in 1864, after which he took up the study of law in the law department of the Michigan State University, at Ann Arbor. He was there gradu- ated in 1866, and for twenty-four years thereafter successfully engaged in the practice of his pro- fession in Missouri. He spent sixteen years in Carthage, that state, and became one of the most distinguished and able members of the bar, hav- ing a large clientage, whereby he was connected with most of the important litigation tried in the courts of his district. He was also a member of the Missouri state legislature in 1870 and was a man of prominence in public life. As his finan- cial resources increased, as the result of his large law practice, he made judicious and extensive in- vestments in real estate, and also became a stock- holder in various banks in Missouri, acquiring a wide and profitable banking experience. In April, 1892, he came to Hailey and has since been connected with the financial interests of this city. He erected one of the good residences of the town and the company of which he is presi- dent also built the commodious bank building which they occupy. As the head of the First National Bank Mr. Buller has become widely known in Hailey and throughout the surround-
Joseph 6. Rich
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ing country. His business methods are conserv- ative, sound and trustworthy, and his capable management has made the First National Bank one of the most reliable financial establishments in this part of the state. He also has a large and valuable ranch, of two thousand acres, fourteen miles below Hailey. There is an abundance of good water on the place, and he is extensively engaged in raising grain and Hereford and short-horn cattle and also sheep. The income from the ranch is not inconsiderable, and in ad- dition to that property Mr. Buller has extensive realty holdings in California, South Dakota, Mis- souri and Iowa.
In 1880 Mr. Buller was united in marriage to Miss Rosa Osburn, a native of Indiana, and they have a son, Charles, who is now attending school in Minnesota. The parents are members of the Episcopal church, in which our subject is now serving as vestryman. In politics he has been a lifelong Republican, and, keeping well informed on the issues of the day, gives a loyal support to the party, but has never been an aspirant for of- fice, preferring to devote his time and energies to his business interests, in which he has met with excellent success. He has by ceaseless toil and endeavor attained marked prosperity in business affairs, has gained the respect and con- fidence of men, and is recognized as one of the distinctively representative citizens of Hailey.
JOSEPH C. RICH.
Judge Joseph C. Rich, eldest son of Hon. Charles C. Rich, a sketch of whom appears else- where in this history, was born in Nauvoo, Han- cock county, Illinois, January 16, 1841. His mother's maiden name was Sarah D. Pea,-good stock all around,-his ancestors being of that hardy pioneer school who have subdued the wilds of the middle and western states and mnade pos- sible the grandeur of those noble common- wealths.
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When but a boy of five years he, in connection with his parents and several thousand others, was driven from the city of his birth by mobocratic persecution, and commenced that historic jour- ney, the Mormon exodus toward the setting sun, which has since resulted in the settlement and the development of our great "Inter-Mountain Empire." He wintered in 1846-7 at Mount
Pisgah, then a portion of the wilderness of Iowa. At this place nearly one-third of that camp died during the winter, through sickness brought on by exposure and want. The well peopled grave- yard found there by the permanent settlers who subsequently settled that region, attests suf- ficiently that fact.
As soon as grass could grow in the spring of 1847 the journey westward was resumed and con- tinned throughout the summer until one thou- sand four hundred miles-long, lonesome and weary ones-brought them, on the 2d day of October, 1847, to the then parched and desolate valley of the Salt Lake. This journey was made by ox and cow teams, manipulated by men, boys and women, through a country thickly peopled by hostile Indians, through countless multitudes of buffalo, which frequently stampeded the teams and were so numerous that at times the train was compelled to camp, corral the cattle within the enclosures of their wagons and wait for hours and sometimes days for the immense buffalo herds to pass. On one of these occasions the subject of this sketch came nearly losing his life by a frightened ox jumping over a wagon, alighting on top of him. Mr. Rich says now, contemplating the number of those noble animals he remembers seeing in the Platte valley alone, he cannot realize the fact that they are now al- most an extinct race. He says this wanton, use- less and cruel extermination of these noble ani- mals is a disgrace to the Anglo-Saxon sport, so- called, and to the government which permitted it.
His arrival in the Salt Lake valley had been preceded by the original pioneer band of one hundred and forty men and three women and some companies, and all went to work and built a fort, consisting of log and adobe houses, en- closing a square of ten acres. Four gates, one on each side, were so constructed that all the stock of the colony could be driven in at night, the gates securely fastened, and by regular details of guards night and day, as security against In- dian attacks, the first home and settlements of the Rocky mountain region began. The spot, geographically, at that time, was Mexican soil, notwithstanding which the stars and stripes were floated to the breeze,-a provincial government under the constitution of the United States was organized. The ending of the war with Mexico
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and the treaty of Guadaloupe-Hidalgo culmin- ated in the creation by congress of the territory of Utah, which supplanted the provincial govern- ment previously formed.
Mr. Rich attended such primitive schools as then existed, learned to read and write, and graduated in all the lore of Webster's Elementary Spelling Book, the only school library then deemed necessary, and the only one to be had. While his opportunities to obtain even the rudi- ments of an education were of the rudest and most meager kind, he prides himself on the fact that none of the schools of his day produced a single "dude."
In 1855 he accompanied his father to San Ber- nardino, California, then a Mexican grant which his father and Amasa M. Lyman had purchased under the direction of the Mormon authorities. While here he studied surveying and was em- ployed a considerable part of his time in assisting in the survey of that ranch into lots and tracts for farming purposes. The grant was twenty miles square and embraced nearly the whole of San Bernardino county, California; and is now probably one of the richest and most productive parts of the whole state. He returned to Salt Lake City in 1857 and worked on his father's farm.
In 1860, with his father, he performed a mis- sion as a Mormon elder to Great Britain, visiting England and Wales and remained abroad until the fall of 1863, when he returned to his home in Salt Lake. He was one of the youngest elders ever sent abroad. During the fall of this year his father was directed by Brigham Young to summon volunteers and effect at that time set- tlements in Bear Lake valley, now the southeast- ern county of the state of Idaho, and in Septem- ber of that year, with a company of fifty horse- men and teams the valley was visited, the town of Paris, now the county-seat of Bear Lake coun- ty, was founded and from this beginning com- menced the settlement of southeastern Idaho.
Mr. Rich accompanied the settlers in 1863 and for the next few years put in his time surveying the towns and villages and farming lands, from Evanston, Wyoming, to Soda Springs, the United States surveys not having then been made.
The early settlers of this section had much to
contend with. Hostile Indians had to be watched continually, the horses and cattle were herded by armed men, the frosts of the high elevation-six thousand feet-killed the crops, and it was only by great suffering, deprivation and the sternest persistence of the settlers in remaining, that the region was peopled and the difficulties overcome. Now the valleys teem with happy homes, grist and sawmills, trades and business of all kinds, public schools second to none, colleges, railroads, telegraphs and telephones, canals, and steamers on our lakes, and a population of tens of thou- sands. Such have been the results of the pluck, energy, sufferings and successful efforts of the early settlers of southeastern Idaho. Of this kind of material nations are made possible and none are entitled to more credit than the forerun- ners of American civilization in the Rocky mountain states and territories.
Hang a garland on the grave Of every pioneer; We owe to them our happy homes, Our comfort and our cheer.
In 1886 Mr. Rich married Ann Eliza Hunter, a daughter of Bishop Edward Hunter, of Salt Lake City, a name almost as widely known in Utah as that of Brigham Young. They have living three girls and three boys,-Edward C., Susaan J., Sarah L., Libbey, Joseph C. and Stand- ley H. They live on the shore of Bear lake and have natural white-sulphur hot springs at their home, which are frequented for bathing purposes by hundreds, on account of the health-giving, medicinal qualities of the waters.
Mr. Rich has since manhood been actively en- gaged in politics, is a stanch, unflinching Demo- crat, and his abilities as a leader have been rec- ognized by his party in the state. He has been elected to almost every office in his county and district. Twice he represented Bear Lake county as a representative to the territorial legislature; presided over the Democratic state convention in 1894; was elected to and attended as delegate the Chicago convention in 1896, casting his vote and that of the state for William Jennings Bryan for president; was elected state senator in 1896, on an anti-Dubois platform, was the chairman of the Democratic legislative caucus, and did more, perhaps, than any other man in the state to carry
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out the fusion contract between the Democrats and the Populists. In this contest the honor of the Democratic party of the state was involved, and to the efforts and successful generalship of Judge Rich and his associates may be attributed the success of that campaign. Mr. Rich believed that the Democratic party had entered into and made an honest compact with the Populist party, and that for his party to retain its honor and re- main a worthy power in the state the terms of that compact must be faithfully maintained,-and they were.
As a forcible, fluent and impressive speaker and debater he stands with the first of his party; fearless, keen-witted, quick and able in debate and repartee, well informed on all public ques- tions, sarcastic when necessary, unusually fair to an opponent,-these qualities have made him one of the ablest men in the state in his championship of the cause of Democracy. In the struggle of the women for female suffrage, he championed their cause and did all he could to give them the standing they have in the statutes of the state to- day.
He fought bitterly the disfranchisement of the Mornion people in the territory of Idaho, claim- ing the constitutional right of every religious class to participate in the affairs of state, denied the right of government to interfere or punish conscionable affairs, and even went so far as to resign his membership in the Mormon church rather than subject himself to disfranchisement. He continued his fight against creed discrimina- tion until the repeal of the obnoxious and un- constitutional statute and the rehabilitation of the franchise of the people. In this matter he fought both Democrats and Republicans alike, both parties having participated in the crime.
In 1898 a fusion on the state and congressional ticket for the state of Idaho was effected between the Democrats and silver-Republicans as against the Populists on one side and the straight Re- publicans on the other, -- a three-cornered politi- cal fight. The fusion as between the first parties did not extend to the county and district offices. A judge was to be elected for the fifth judicial district, comprising nearly one-third of the coun- ties of the state,-Oneida, Bannock, Bingham, Fremont, Lemhi and Bear Lake counties. The silver-Republicans issued an invitation for the
Democrats to go into joint convention, to nomi- nate a judge, which invitation was accepted by the Democrats. When it was subsequently pri- vately ascertained that Mr. Rich would have an undoubted majority on joint ballot for the nomi- nation, the silver-Republicans refused to honor their own call, and the result was separate con- ventions of the two parties on the judgeship nomination. The Democrats nominated Judge Rich; the silver-Republicans, F. S. Dietrich; the straight Republicans, John A. Bagley; and the Populists, Sample H. Orr, Judge Rich was elected by a clear plurality over all of one thou- sand eight hundred and twenty-four votes. His term of office expires in January, 1904. That he makes a fair, able, earnest and just judge is con- ceded by all, and the people feel that in confiding to him the interest of their lives and property they have made no mistake.
HON. JAMES J. McDONALD.
The subject of this sketch, one of the leading general contractors of Idaho and a man of public spirit, is a native of Ireland, his birth having oc- curred in the city of Dublin, July 12, 1862. In his native city he acquired a liberal education, and in 1880 emigrated to the United States, lo- cating in Denver, Colorado, where he remained for two years. From 1882 to 1890 he was en- gaged in railway construction, in several states, and during the last named year came to Idaho, settling at Nampa, where he has since resided.
During his residence in this state Mr. McDon- ald has been engaged in mining, irrigation and railway construction, under contract, the latest contract for the latter species of work being made for the grading of the Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railroad.
But his value to the community is not confined to the directing of manual labor, for his intellec- tual heritage and attainments have led him to take an efficient part in the public welfare. Po- litically he is a Republican, and he is always active in supporting the principles and interests of that party. In the autumn of 1898 he was elected to represent Canyon county in the state senate of the fifth session of the Idaho legisla- ture. While a member of that body he was chair- man of the railroad and transportation commit- tee and a member of the committee on engrossed
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bills and corporations. He was one of the lead- ing members of the senate, taking an active and influential part.
Fraternally Mr. McDonald is a member of the I. O. O. F. and of the B. P. O. E., and he is also a member of the Commercial Club of Nampa. In all his business and social relations he is an influential leader.
In 1890, in Boise, Mr. McDonald was united in marriage with Miss Florence DeMeyer, a native of Fulton, Kentucky. .
JAMES H. HARTE.
A well known real-estate and insurance agent of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, is James H. Harte, who was born in Connecticut, near the city of Hart- ford, July 25, 1854, his parents being Walter and Elizabeth (Gibson) Harte, both of whom were natives of Connecticut, in which state the father died when about fifty-five years of age, while the mother still makes her home there.
Mr. Harte of this review pursued his education in the public schools of Plainville, and Hartford, Connecticut. He then entered upon his business career as a clerk in a dry-goods store in Hart- ford, where he remained for four years, after which he conducted operations along the same line until 1878. He then enlisted in the regular army as a member of Company C, Second United States Infantry, and after serving for five years was honorably discharged, November 8, 1883, at Fort Spokane, having in the meantime attained the rank of first sergeant.
After leaving the army Mr. Harte served for three years as bookkeeper for the post trader at Fort Spokane and then came to Coeur d'Alene, in the winter of 1886. For one year he was en- gaged in general merchandising in this town, and since the spring of 1888 has been engaged in the . real-estate and insurance business.
In 1885 was celebrated his marriage to Miss Amelia R. Brooks, a native of Boston, Massa- chusetts, and they have one child, Margaret. In his political affiliations Mr. Harte is a Republican and keeps well informed on the issues of the day, thus being qualified to give an intelligent support to the party of his choice. He was made a Knight of Pythias in May, 1890, at the institu- tion of the lodge at Coeur d'Alene, and was its first chancellor commander. In June, 1892, at
the institution of the grand lodge of Idaho, at Moscow, he was elected grand keeper of the rec- ords and seals, which position he has since ac- ceptably filled. He takes an active part in all the work and interests of the order and is a gentle- man of pleasing address and manner who wins friends wherever he goes and always commands the respect of those with whom he is brought in contact.
JOSEPH A. CLARK.
The Idaho canal is fed by Snake river, ten miles above Idaho Falls. It has three headgates, is forty feet wide and thirty-five miles long and irrigates one hundred thousand acres of land, the country which it waters being largely settled by prosperous farmers who raise hay and grain in large quantities. The productiveness of this stretch of country and the prosperity which flows from it are made possible by this great inland im- provement, and the canal was made possible largely through the personal efforts of Joseph A. Clark, who advocated it, promoted it and was chiefly instrumental in raising the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars required for its con- struction.
Joseph A. Clark, mayor of Idaho Falls, Idaho, was born in North Carolina, December 26. 1837, and is descended from Irish ancestors who set- tled early in the south. His great-grandfather, William Clark, fought under General Nathaniel Greene in the Revolutionary war, and died in North Carolina at the age of eighty. His son, Dugan Clark, grandfather of Joseph A. Clark, was born in North Carolina and became a Qua- ker minister. His son William Clark, second, father of Joseph A. Clark, was born in Greens- borough, North Carolina, and there married a North Carolina girl, named Lois Worth, a daughter of David Worth. William Clark, sec- ond, was a merchant, and spent most of his days in the south, but late in life he came north to In- diana, where he died at the age of sixty-five. He inherited slaves, but was so thoroughly opposed to slavery that he freed them. When the ques- tion of slavery threatened to disrupt the nation he was a Union man. His wife died in 1895, aged eighty. They had twelve children, of whom eleven are living. The one who is deceased died as the result of an injury.
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Joseph A. Clark, third child of William and Lois (Worth) Clark, was graduated from Earl- ham College, Indiana, in 1862, and has passed the busy years of his life as a civil engineer. He came to Idaho Falls in 1885, accompanied by his wife and six children. The town was then in- significant, and its tributary territory was scarce- ly susceptible to profitable cultivation. He saw the need of irrigation and, as has been stated, was prominent in projecting and pushing the Idaho canal to completion. His trained skill and long experience as an engineer were brought to bear on the problem which confronted the settlers and retarded the development of the country, and his enthusiasm and business ability were potent fac- tors in the success of the enterprise.
In 1866 Mr. Clark married Miss Eunice Had- ley, a native of Hadley, Indiana, a town named in honor of her father, Nathan Hadley, who was a pioneer on its site. Their children are Nathan H. (see biographical sketch); William, a farmer; Worth, a lawyer, of the firm of Holden & Clark; Mary, wife of W. H. Holden ; and Barzillai and Chase, who are being educated. Mr. Clark is an influential Democrat.
SAMUEL R. PARKINSON.
The name of this gentleman is so inseparably connected with the history of Franklin, its up- building and its progress along commercial, edu- cational and church lines, that no history of the southeastern section of the state would be com- plete without the record of his useful career. He was one of the first to locate in Franklin and is numbered among its honored pioneers. A native of England, he was born in Barrowford, Lan- castershire, April 12, 1831, a son of William and Charlotte (Rose) Parkinson, who were likewise natives of that country. He was only six months old when his father died, and two years later his mother married Edward Berry, a gentleman who was very fond of travel and who took his wife and stepson to many foreign ports, including the Cape of Good Hope, Africa, thence to Sydney, Australia, to New Zealand, to Valparaiso, in South America, and then back to England in the fall of 1846. They were shipwrecked in the Irish channel, were rescued in life-boats, and were landed in Ireland at the time of the severe famine in that country. Mr. Parkinson's stepfather
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